


The Honest Souls of Dishonest People

by AssassinatingTearribly



Category: Assassination Classroom, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Daemon Discrimination, Eventual Romance, M/M, Nagisa needs a therapist, Not a Crossover, Not as angsty as it sounds, Self-Hatred, Universe Rules Explained
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:15:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21719008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssassinatingTearribly/pseuds/AssassinatingTearribly
Summary: Class 3-E is filled with colourful daemons accompanying their humans in their day-to-day lives. The classroom is alive with chittering, barking and Koro-sensei’s laughter.Unlike his classmates, Nagisa keeps his daemon hidden from judging eyes. A snake doesn’t suit him, after all.
Relationships: Akabane Karma & Shiota Nagisa, Akabane Karma & Sugino Tomohito, Akabane Karma/Shiota Nagisa, Class 3-E & Shiota Nagisa, Korosensei & Shiota Nagisa, Shiota Nagisa & Snakes, Shiota Nagisa & Sugino Tomohito
Comments: 14
Kudos: 266





	The Honest Souls of Dishonest People

**Author's Note:**

> This AU follows the laws of the His Dark Materials universe, with a few social differences. The basics are:
> 
> Daemons are the physical manifestation of the human soul. Before a daemon settles its form, it can shift to any animal it chooses. Daemons settle once maturity is reached. They are usually the opposite sex of their human. Touching another person’s daemon is considered taboo. 
> 
> Daemon’s can be permanently injured. If a daemon dies, their human dies with them.
> 
> A human’s daemon is named by their parents’ daemons. The names have meanings, which I will expand upon later.
> 
> I tried to explain the important parts in the actual story too, so if this doesn’t make sense to you yet, hopefully it will later.
> 
> And uh “daemon” is pronounced like “demon”
> 
> Some extra details to avoid confusion:
> 
> Miho is the name of Sugino’s daemon.
> 
> Nagisa’s daemon Airu’s POV is in italics. Technically they’re the same whole so it would be weird not to include him.
> 
> Set between Ep 2 and 3. This chapter is basically an introduction.

After a tiring day of trying to kill Koro-sensei and practicing baseball pitches with Sugino, Nagisa was ready to go home and have a couple hours to himself before his mother came back.

Nagisa felt his daemon, Airu, curl around his waist as he stood up. It was always uncomfortable for the snake during winter so he likes to bundle under Nagisa’s clothes to keep warm. Given that it wasn’t cold right now, the reason he was close had nothing to do with the temperature.

He likes it this way. It keeps Airu safe and out of sight, away from his mother and looks of surprise. No one expects his daemon to be a snake. _He_ didn’t even expect his daemon to be a snake. Before Airu settled, he would flicker between small animals, favouring the form of a mouse the most. 

He settled back when Karma still wanted to hang out with Nagisa. Sometimes he wonders if that had anything do with it. Being around someone as confident, talented and mischievous as Karma, maybe Nagisa started to change without realising it. Maybe his admiration was actually a disguised vicious jealousy that brought the darkest parts of Nagisa to light. His mother certainly thought so. She blames Airu being a snake on Karma’s influence.

Simply thinking about it brought a wall of shame down on Nagisa. Out of all animals, why did Airu have to be a snake? Why couldn’t he be something friendly like a rabbit or a parrot? Nagisa was a friendly person, right? He tried to be, at least, and his daemon - literally the physical manifestation of his soul - should reflect that. Snake daemons are associated with cunning, cold and dangerous people, and Nagisa is none of those.

His snake daemon says differently, and as a result, everyone who sees Airu assumes he’s hiding his true personality under a mask. It’s hard to make friends when everyone’s waiting for you to stab them in the back, so Nagisa makes sure he stays hidden in his clothes. He tells people that Airu’s shy and they seem to accept that. It suits him, after all, to have a small, cowardly animal as a daemon.

_Airu doesn’t mind. It was his idea in the first place. Staring at someone else’s daemon for too long is considered rude, and everyone stared at him when he was out. It was annoying and he wasn’t in a hurry to start dealing with that regularly. Plus, it was warm under here._

“Hurry up, Nagisa!” Sugino called from the classroom doorway.

Nagisa smiled apologetically and hurriedly grabbed his things. Yes, it was definitely better this way. He had more friends than he could ever have with Airu on his shoulders. He tried to ignore the voice in the back of his head that told him it wouldn’t last. That they’d find out eventually and leave. Until then, he was going to enjoy it as much as he could.

Walking down the mountain with Sugino, Nagisa snuck an envious glance at the shiba inu dog trailing behind him. It must be nice to have a daemon nobody blinks twice at.

“Sugino?” Nagisa said. “Do you ever play catch with Miho?”

“Yeah, sometimes,” Sugino laughed. “I wasn’t sure I liked Miho as a dog at first, since the form is so common, but she seems happy like that. Playing catch is limited to short distances so it’s not very good practice, but it’s fun!” Miho wagged her tail in agreement.

“Hm.” Nagisa remembered the times when Airu was a dog. He used to shift into that shape sometimes when Nagisa was talking to his mother or when he played outside as a child. It was supposed to be a sign of an obedient person.

“Do you think Koro-sensei will notice if I write 200 words less than he asked for on the energy conversion essay?”

Nagisa smiled in amusement. “Probably.” 

Sugino groaned. “I’ve already finished it and I can’t write anymore without repeating things. Three thousand words is too much!”

Sugino was hardly a troublemaker, but he wasn’t completely obedient, either. Maybe he would understand that Airu’s form doesn’t define Nagisa? It was a hopeful thought but he wasn’t about to introduce Airu to Sugino on a whim. Even before he was a snake, Nagisa didn’t like introducing him to people. If they didn’t already think Nagisa was a girl, they’d be sure of it after finding out Airu was male.

The one thing Nagisa liked about snakes was that you couldn’t easily tell the gender of them. Unless Airu decided to speak, anyone would assume he was female... or male, depending on if they realised Nagisa was a boy. A male having a male daemon wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t normal. It implied things he wasn’t ready to think about.

A part of Nagisa thought he might be cursed. He must’ve done something terrible in his past lives. But it wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it in this one, too.

“Nagisa,” Sugino interrupted his thoughts, “what kind of animal is your daemon?”

Yes, Nagisa was definitely cursed. A world where he had to lie to his closest friend was not one he wanted to live in. He always tried to avoid the topic of his daemon. It was difficult when people were already curious about why there wasn’t an animal by his side. It looked odd, especially in a class like 3-E with so many colourful daemons. Still, he didn’t have to lie completely.

Nagisa turned his head to face Sugino fully. “Eh, _she_ is small, shy and sensitive to loud noises.” It was a cryptic answer he’d used too many times to count. That didn’t stop him from feeling guilty, though.

Sugino furrowed his brow and Nagisa could read the confusion in his face. There was no preventing that. This was how the end began, wasn’t it?

After a moment, Sugino grinned easily and changed the subject to something Nagisa only vaguely payed attention to. His mind whirled with possibilities. Sugino hadn’t probed any further; did that mean he already knew and didn’t care, or that he was politely pretending that it was normal to not want to disclose the form of your daemon?! He hoped it was the former. He _really, really_ hoped it was the former, even when the idea of one more person knowing made him want to run away from everything.

They parted ways soon after and Nagisa walked home with a new beat in his step. If he did decide to introduce his daemon, maybe this time, Sugino wouldn’t leave like Karma did.

**Author's Note:**

> Yep Karma actually ran away from a snake in this lol
> 
> Eh I think the tenses are a bit weird in this. I haven’t written much in Third Person POV so any criticism or tips are gratefully received!
> 
> This fic will probably be less than 20 chapters. I’m not sure how spaced out I want the story yet. It will mostly follow the canon plot but focus only on the plot relevant parts. Things will obviously be twisted to fit the universe too 
> 
> Besides from Nagisa, Sugino, Asano and Karma, feel free to suggest daemon animals for the other characters
> 
> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://assassinatinglofiwithtears.tumblr.com/) at assassinatinglofiwithtears. I’m always up for talking about AssClass!
> 
> :)


End file.
